


Whenever You're Ready

by Dagonet (AgentDagonet)



Series: Tumblr Prompts [26]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Ghost!Nikola Tesla, I dunno mate, It just happened, Merlin can see ghosts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22767577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentDagonet/pseuds/Dagonet
Summary: leeef  asked:I LOVE your Eggsy Sees Ghosts series and would love to see the Merlin/Roxy edition.
Series: Tumblr Prompts [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/350969
Comments: 3
Kudos: 27





	Whenever You're Ready

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leeef](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leeef/gifts).



> So, I actually wasn’t sure what to do with this- both because I have 2 AUs in the series so I wasn’t sure which to expand on, and because those AUs are so Gen I couldn’t see any shipping in it. It just… is. Not sure I can articulate it proper.
> 
> BUT I was suddenly hit with this idea for Merlin, and maybe one will hit me for Roxy later, but for now have this! It’s weird, I don’t know what it is, but it’s here! 
> 
> Takes place in the verse where Harry dies in Kentucky.

Merlin’d always been able to see the things that others couldn’t.

It was a bit of a problem, actually. It had made children reluctant to be his friend, teens eager to avoid his knowing gaze, and peers at university jealous of his success- sometimes to the point of accusing him of academic dishonesty. Which such a load of tosh that any professor with whom the accusation was shared would pretend to take it serious until the door shut behind them before tossing it into the rubbish.

The things people would do to feel better of themselves.

Luckily the trend wasn’t as noticeable after graduation- though whether that was due to his ceasing to take notice or an actual decline of the behaviour was anyone’s guess. Merlin puttered about with whatever technology he found made available to him, allowed his mind to run with whatever strange possibility came to him.

That the source of such ideas was the apparent-spectre of a long-dead futurist who had desperately attached himself o the first intelligent being who could see him was no one’s business but his own. Not that he acknowledged him, nowadays. 

As a child his parents had chalked up his mutterings to an imaginary friend- and, honestly, it wasn’t as if he knew any better. But, as the years passed, it became less and less acceptable to speak to the air as if it would respond, and Merlin had grown quiet. He’d grown more studious, forever writing in notebooks and sketching whatever idea came readily to him, and his family had sighed in relief as Nik had faded from their lives.

The key word was _their_ lives, as the spectral man had done nothing but time his conversations for when they were unseen. Or, that is, when Merlin was supposed to be asleep and instead was up experimenting with whatever he could get his hands on.

So, when someone asked where he had the idea for whatever innovation it was at the time, Merlin learnt to answer without answering.

‘Oh, I’m inspired by Nikola Tesla.’

—

Slowly, though, even Merlin began to doubt what he was seeing. Who he was seeing. There was no reasonable explanation for a ghost of a man with no logical connection to him to be haunting him, so obviously it was wishful thinking. A longing for intellectual connection, manifest as some form of hallucination he would not bring notice to for fear of ruining his career. 

By the time Merlin became Merlin, as entrenched in Kingsman as the roots of the great Life Tree, he didn’t acknowledge Nik. It wasn’t personal, he told himself; it was simply time for him to grow up and face the fact that he was projecting insecurities and subconscious desires as a way to not take responsibility for his more eccentric or ambitious endeavours.

Yes, he’d privatised the sorts of things Tesla had wanted to provide for all, but he had done so not out of a bid for monetary compensation but for security for the world. For everyone. Had the world developed into a kinder place, a safer place, perhaps he’d have taken the altruistic road. But, as it was, the world was a dark and cruel place- so Kingsman needed what no one else had, they needed the best, so that’s what Merlin made.

The years passed, and Merlin studiously ignored the things he saw moving in the corner of his eye. The people who weren’t fully there, the ones he had seen die but somehow walked past him in the halls, and especially the once-man who has guided him and inspired him. The one he hadn’t looked directly at or listened fully to in nearly a decade.

It was only by luck that Nikola was even nearby, the day Harry died. He’d been spending more time elsewhere- other inventors to watch, the possibility of finding another Seer- there was an incredibly finite number of things his moving On could be tied to, this many years later, but he was still hoping to figure it out. He had no desire to see the world continue to spin in the same old way and be unable to spin along with it.

Nikola Tesla was _tired_ in the way he hadn’t known ghosts could be.

—

Eggsy walked out of the bullet train and toward Merlin with a surety he’d been sorely lacking the last time he’d been on Kingsman grounds. Nik kept himself to the shadows, as far from Merlin as he could be while still being able to hear what was going on, but could clearly see the two men at Eggsy’s shoulders, like heaven and hell themselves resting at his back.

One bore an incredible physical likeness to Eggsy, while the other was Merlin’s friend- so there was the proof that he had, indeed, perished on Kentucky soil. However, what was more interesting was the calculated look Harry Hart gave Merlin before stepping around Eggsy and approaching him directly. Harry spoke clearly and concisely, outlines a simple but efficient plan, and _demanded_ that Merlin look him in the eye.

Nik had never been one to push the boundaries of his forced transparency, had never bothered to note the ability to know one thing over another; his fascination had been with the physical and electrical. How the energies of the world interacted- discovering that he was unable to influence such things while still having consciousness had been frustrating, to say the least. It had taken the joy from exploration, so he’d been content to find _anyone_ who could see him- and eventually lucked out with Merlin, a child who had both the ability to see him and understand his prodding.

But, perhaps he’d been thinking on too large a scale. Perhaps the connections and transmissions he should have been focusing on were smaller, and infinitely more complex.

As Nikola Tesla watched Harry Hart demand his Merlin’s attention, as he realised that Eggsy could see them, and thus would (he assumed) be able to see himself… He wasn’t sure what he felt. He hadn’t needed to breathe in decades, he hadn’t been able to communicate actively with another being since Merlin’d begun ignoring him, and he had lost all passion to create at about the same time. But here was this Moment, the child he had seen come into his own and the generation after, and suddenly there was meaning. Purpose, though it had long been achieved. 

In a moment built from a billion fragmented actions, Nikola Tesla realised that he was ready to move On.

—

Merlin looked up at the gasp from the corner, forced his gaze from Harry and turned toward the shadows that Nik had kept himself to for the past… He didn’t even know how long, and he felt guilty for having ignored the man so thoroughly.

Nik was watching with wide, sad, eyes and a small smile. The kind of look Merlin had only received after making some offhand remark about not needing anyone else when he’d had Nik. It was a look of resignation, with some small bit of pride hidden beneath. Unfortunate pride in a skill borne from necessity instead of desire.

‘Are you okay, old friend?’ Merlin hesitated in calling him by name, somehow feeling as if he was unworthy of use informality. Nik wiped at his eyes, and smiled more fully for being Seen.

‘Oh, yes- I’ve just discovered why I’d been made to stick around, you see. I’ve finished it all, and so…’ He shrugged, palms open, and Merlin allowed himself a moment to grieve the loss of a friend he had not treated as he should have in recent years.

‘I know that I haven’t been-’

‘You’ve been precisely what you needed to be- no more, no less. And I thank you, for humouring an old man’s fanciful ideas,’ Merlin opened his mouth, but Nik cut him off once more, ‘we’ve accomplished a great many things together, and I have the nagging suspicion that you’re going to accomplish a great many more before we cross paths again. Now,’ Tesla placed a hand on Merlin’s shoulder, the air just a bit cooler there than in the rest of the room, and dipped his head once before walking from him, ‘go stop Valentine.’ Nikola refused to look back, though he tipped his head lightly at Eggsy and Harry as he passed by.

He had faded from view entirely, and Merlin stared blankly at where he had been, until Eggsy grasped him by the wrist.

‘Merlin, y’alrigh?’ His eyes were earnest, and Merlin wondered if Eggsy had any idea how fully his emotions were displayed on his face. But, no matter, they had time to teach him those skills more fully now. Unfortunately. ‘… Who was he?’ It was whispered, with a brief glance to where Nik had last been.

‘The greatest mind I’ve ever known.’

**Author's Note:**

> As always, you can find me on tumblr at [AgentDagonet](http://www.agentdagonet.tumblr.com) feel free to send me prompts or recs or whatever. I'll try anything!


End file.
